Tongues of Fire - a music podcast

A music podcast featuring Gord Johnson's Pentecost song "Tongues of Fire," from the 1994 trio project Unlikely Icon, with Steve Bell and Larry Campbell.

The Unlikely Icon album was released as a companion CD to a songbook of original music, intended to allow church congregations access to some great songs for use in their own worship contexts. Included in this project are songs that have become staples in Steve Bell’s repertoire and standards in our own saint ben’s canon of music in our own liturgy, including “God Our Protector”, “Praise the Father, Praise the Son”, “Even So Lord Jesus, Come”, and “Tongues of Fire”.

“Tongues of Fire” was written by Gord Johnson, inspired by his reading of a book on Eastern Orthodoxy that generously referenced the Philokalia (“Love of the Good, the Beautiful”); a collection of classic Eastern Christian texts. Gord commented that he “wrote it in 20 minutes.”

Tongues of Fire - Gord Johnson

O, tongues of fire
Come and kiss us on the brow
Holy wind fill our sails with Your love
And as then, may we now
Know your resurrection power
In our lives, in the church
To the glory of the Father
In the name of Jesus, amen
In the name of Jesus, amen

Long awaited promise of the Father
Long awaited promise of the Son
Through the ages, emanating presence
Of the Blessed three in one
Who has come in wind and fire
To indwell and to inspire
O, come be with us this hour

Hovering over the surface of the water
Breath of life to all living things
Who descended on Jesus as a dove
On the first epiphany
From the Father, through the Son
In the Holy Spirit comes
Every gift of God to us

Now the kingdom of God is among us
Now we share His divinity
Spirit of God poured out on all flesh
Of the new humanity
In the Spirit, through the Son
To the Father we may come
All our yearnings to bring home

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